Part II in the wine cask series and from last week’s party in the southern Highlands at Deanston we take it rather up north, to the northern Highlands. It’s pretty much a 200 km straight line from Deanston to Glenmorangie, but it’s not only the distance that sets them apart as both are very different distilleries, with a very different background and different ‘signature’ styles. Deanston tends to be malty, a bit grassy and slightly waxy, whereas Glenmorangie is known for its softer, gentle and almost delicate whiskies. Glenmorangie’s entry level expression, the original, is a 10 year old matured in ex bourbon casks, and a lot of their other core range expressions pretty much take it from there. For their cask finish series, you can chose your pick from the Lasanta, finished in sherry casks, the Quinta Ruban, finished in port casks and this Nectar D’or, finished in sauternes casks.
It’s perhaps a lesser known fact, but Glenmorangie is actually one of the pioneers of finishing, or double maturation, as they were among the first to pput the idea into practice some 30 odd years ago. So with 3 decades of experience, we can safely assume they know what they’re doing when it comes to finishing, surely.
Until 2018 all of 3 Glenmorangie’s cask finishes were released as a 12 year old, but for some (probably very good) reason the Quinta Ruban got a bump up an is now released as a 14 yo, whereas the age statement on the Nectar D’Or was dropped. As an easy sipping whisky, I quite like the original, as well as the Lasanta, and the Quinta Ruban I think makes a strong advocate for port cask finishes as I find it to be a very well balanced whisky, showing just enough cask character to bring in some complexity and depth while retaining that softer side of Glenmorangie as well. As for the Nectar D’Or…, this is in fact my first ever bottle of it, so let’s just dive straight into this.
On the nose, it has this soft buttery note which over time develops into a vanilla – custard note. There’s white fruit (melon, apricot) and some soft green tropical notes like kiwi as well. Something gently cereal, making for a vanilla cookie note. Definitely wine notes too, although not necessarily sweet, this comes across more like a medium dry white wine, but without any astringency. It does become noticeably more sweet over time as well as spicy and very softly musky as some nutmeg shows up (from the sémillon and sauvignon blanc, perhaps?). Overall quite nice, but perhaps a bit ‘simple’ and ‘easy’ as the dessert wine mostly ads sweetness to what is already soft and sweet to begin with? Let’s see what a drop of water does to this… It does accentuate some white fruit notes, but also brings an almost granulated sugary sweetness to it.
On the palate, the spices are more obvious and upfront, although this still remains soft, with sweet cereal and vanilla as the obvious notes, with a light-medium mouthfeel. I didn’t really pick up a million different flavours from this on the palate, but after some water there’s clear notes of white fruit and grapes, and it does bring out a more dry mouthfeel.
The finish mostly echoes what the palate brings and it’s not overly long with a spice note (nutmeg again) that lingers about a bit.
This whisky is almost the exact opposite of last week’s Deanston. None of that loud ‘pay attention to me’ attitude (yes, whisky can have an attitude), but soft and sweet. While that’s of course very close to the signature Glenmorangie style, I find it doesn’t really grab me. The sauternes cask finish doesn’t, in my opinion, bring out enough extra aspects to this whisky, or helps it develop some stand-out character and development. It’s a very nice, easy going whisky, but perhaps a bit too straightforward to be truly engaging. If you’ve got a sweet tooth, you’ll probably love this. And if you were ever trying to lure someone into liking whisky, this would do the trick. But truth be told, the original 10 yo would very likely get the job done as well, and that one is considerably cheaper. With a retail price of around €50-€60, this is similarly priced to both the Lasanta and the Quinta Ruban, and I would pick those (especially the QR) over this one, anytime. 81/100
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